Not to worry about the curve at Titus Canyon as I went with a 22" radius. I figured that a 22" radius minimum on the main line would handle just about anything. Even though I've been sticking with short locos for now I would like to be able to run some 2-6-2, 2-8-0, or maybe even a 2-6-6-2.

OK, so here's the flip side to this argument. I'm modeling On30 in a 12' X 11' room. I did a pencil sketch on paper just to develop some ideas. Then I downloaded AnyRail and found that I could have so much more operation ability. Learning how to use the program was pretty easy. I could lay out a track plan, modify it, set perameters like minimum radius and maximum grade. I could even design structures to be built from scratch later on. I was able to develop new ideas in a new layer so it didn't interfere with what I had already designed. If I liked the new idea it was easy to replace the old design with the new. I then used the program to help me design the benchwork. After fussing with the track plan for about a month I decided I had what I wanted. We moved into this house in July of this year and I've recently begun construction of the layout. I'm able to use the design to verify lengths of wood for the frame. The program shows lengths in inches down to .001". Of course 1/16" is accurate enough for this but it sure has been helpful. There have been mistakes where framing had to be moved around to make clearance for the turntable or coaling tower pit but changes to the design are easy to make before you get too far into it. With all that said.....I think using a program like AnyRail saves time, helps to develop design ideas and gets the actual construction going faster.
- Tom

One more thing I forgot to mention. Once you have your design worked out on the computer you can load it into a program called TrainPlayer and run digital trains through it to see if you like your track plan. Do the sidings work? Should there be a runaround here? Is the operation challenging but still fun? Pretty cool and it takes no time at all. I downloaded TrainPlayer Light for free and only used it to test out my design. After a couple of run throughs I was done. It can also be used as a design program by itself.
- Tom